The number of adult social services jobs has fallen by 7% over the last year in England’s councils, a survey suggests.
Around two thirds of local authorities saw the number of adult social service jobs reduce in the twelve months to September 2013, with a total of 10,000 fewer roles being held in England.
While the reasons for these reductions are unclear for the majority of town halls, nine cited outsourcing as the reason for the fall, while 14 reduced due to restructures and redundancies.
However, the report from Skills for Care in partnership with the Health and Social Care Information Centre also reveals the number of whole time equivalent social worker jobs increase by 2% to 14,800 last year.
Findings suggest the demographic profile of a local authority’s social services workforce has remained ‘relatively stable’, with 82% of jobs filled by female workers.
Skills for Care CEO Sharon Allen said: ‘This report shows the reasons for this fall in the number of adult social services jobs in councils in England is complex and varies from authority to authority.
‘We are grateful to all 152 councils who submitted their NMDS-SC data that forms the backbone of this report that really adds to our knowledge of what is happening on the frontline and will help workforce commissioners in their work.’
